Acids bases electrical conductivity. (1 Viewer)

[enigma_1]

1M HCl is good conductor but 1M ammonia is not a good conductor. Which equations can be used to show this? Do I show the reaction with water for each?

 

[mysterymarkplz]

Yes, you react it with water and depending on what arrow you use will show which one is the better conductor, the HCl solution will have a single arrow showing that it'll ionise 100% in water whereas dissolving ammonia in water there will be a reversable reaction as ammonia is a weak base thus there is still some change that NH4 will donate a hydrogen back to water forming ammonia, thus ammonia is not a good conductor as it does not ionise completely in water.

 

[enigma_1]

Yes, you react it with water and depending on what arrow you use will show which one is the better conductor, the HCl solution will have a single arrow showing that it'll ionise 100% in water whereas dissolving ammonia in water there will be a reversable reaction as ammonia is a weak base thus there is still some change that NH4 will donate a hydrogen back to water forming ammonia, thus ammonia is not a good conductor as it does not ionise completely in water.

Thanks. How can I deduce the conductivity of a mixture of HCl and ammonia? So it forms NH4Cl and then do I split that up and show that ammonium chloride is an acidic salt? But it's in equilibrium and therefore it's not a good conductor right?

 

[mysterymarkplz]

You show that its an acidic salt by showing that NH4 is the conjugate acid of a weak base, thus NH4 will have the potential to donate a proton back to OH- as seen in NH3 + H2O -> NH4 + OH- so if NH4 has the potential to donate a proton, then in the reactoin NH4Cl + H2O -> NH3 + Cl- + H3O+
therefore NH4Cl is acidic. I' not quite sure how to tell the conductivity i mean if the arrow is single then its definitely a good conductor, but like u said its in an equilibrium, if thats the case then its not a good conductor since it won't 100% ionize.